It
has been said that the parent is the child's first teacher.
Follow-up studies on premature babies, for instance,
show that the best indicators of how well the child
will do later in life are not how much eyesight the
child has or whether or not there is cognitive delay,
but how able the parents are to intervene and how stimulating
the home environment is.

Parents
need to become good observers of their child in order
to determine if the child's development is proceeding
on target or if the child is "stuck" and needs intervention.
Get a developmental chart. Figure out what your child
is able to do now and what the next logical next step
would be to work on. If there are delays in development,
learn the early intervention techniques that will help
the baby progress. Find out about the importance of
early movement experiences. Discover the ways in which
you can connect with your child and provide information
and experiences that do not require vision. Become acquainted
with the skills of blindness that your child will be
learning.

We
hope that the information in this section will help
you get started on these developmental processes.